v.
- settle or find a solution to.
▸Medicine cause (a symptom or condition) to heal or disappear.
- decide firmly on a course of action.
▸(of a legislative body) take a decision by a formal vote.
- Music cause (a discord) to pass into a concord during the course of harmonic change.
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(resolve something into)
reduce a subject or statement by mental analysis into (separate elements or a more elementary form).
▸chiefly Chemistry separate into constituent parts or components.
- (of something seen at a distance) turn into a different form when seen more clearly.
▸(of optical or photographic equipment) separate or distinguish between (closely adjacent objects).
▸technical separately distinguish (peaks in a graph or spectrum).
- Physics analyse (a force or velocity) into components acting in particular directions.
n.
- firm determination.
- US a formal resolution by a legislative body or public meeting.
Derivative
- resolvability n.
- resolvable adj.
- resolved adj.
- resolvedly adv.
- resolver n.
Etymology
ME (in the senses ‘dissolve, disintegrate’ and ‘solve a problem’): from L. resolvere, from re- (expressing intensive force) + solvere ‘loosen’.